Our friend Matthew Levine has on several occasions made it a point to plan a cruise around his birthday and this was our second Bagel Bash Cruise so far! Last year there was a break, as Paul’s bachelor party was a bachelor cruise!
As with the last Bagel Bash, we planned an inexpensive, 3-day Cruise with Carnival to the Bahamas. We had a nice little group, Matthew of course, Paul and myself, one of my best friends (and my maid of honor) Ashley, and now new friends to Paul and I, Earl and Ron! It was a nice convergence of people, and we had a blast! The weather was wonderful, and the fun was unlimited starting with our first picture… Me having a bit of fun in our cabin!
We were on the Carnival Sensation, a very nice cruise ship! I think between crew and guests it has about 4,000 people on board – don’t quote me on that, but it’s pretty darn close!
We got on board and immediately the party began! Awesome fruity drinks and great food! We enjoyed just chilling out as we waited for the boat to leave port.
The first night we celebrated Matt’s 34th birthday (OLD MAN!) haha. I think every night of the cruise, we had our fine dining experience, and there were at least a half-a-dozen birthdays, and if it wasn’t Happy Birthday the crew was singing, it was Happy Anniversary! The meals were awesome, and you could eat anything and everything you wanted. You could order one of everything on the menu if you really wanted!
The first full day, we docked in Nassau, Bahamas and were off the boat by 12 or 1 PM. The weather was gorgeous, you couldn’t have asked for a better day to tour around the island.
Of course our first stop was Senor Frog’s cause there’s always a party there! We had a blast hanging out, munching and of course DRINKING a LOT! Paul even did a beer drinking contest!
And he won!!! We had two LARGE drinks and some shots, we left Senor Frog’s pretty toasted! And naturally what would anyone do but get their hair braided when you’ve got a nice buzz on in the islands…
After braiding, we went to the beach, and met a friendly little beach cat! Such a sweet one… and got a little bit of beach time before we caught the bus back to the boat.
We had a pretty fun day on the island and were headed back to formal night to do dinner and get pictures! Matt was determined to get a nice group picture for his wall! I unfortunately don’t have it for the blog (maybe I’ll try updating it later with it), but we went to three different stations to get pictures before we were ready to cut loose in the club!
Paul and the guys had a lot of fun this evening, and ironically the ladies cut out early. But Paul did pretty good in the casino’s so it was ok that he stayed out a bit later!
The next day Ashley and I were dead set on getting our chairs to lay out ALL DAY LONG! And that we did! We scoped out our spot after breakfast, and then got ready for our day in the sun. Paul and Earl joined up with us around lunch and Matt and Ron were sleeping off their wild night ALL DAY!
But toward the end of the day, Paul, Earl and Matt decided to give the water slide a try! They said it was a lot of fun… I’ll take their word for it. I heard it was very cold, and that it was a little painful if you hit the seams the wrong way. But it looks like Paul enjoyed it!
Overall it was an awesome time! Ashley finally got used to the rocking… it was definitely more rocky than normal. And the guys had a great time drinking, eating and gambling. I think our next cruise will be longer, and maybe to somewhere new like the Mediterranean or something! Oh and did I mention, Ric Flair was on the cruise! I included a pic of Paul with him. Matt, Ron and Paul all go pictures with him, and he was a good sport about it!
Fun times! We love cruisin’ with great friends!
